Single payer is Root Cause of VA Deaths

General Eric Shinseki ‘falling on his sword’ won’t bring back a single veteran who died needlessly while waiting for approved medical care. Punishing specific hospitals or administrators won’t get our veterans the timely doctor visits they need. Blaming doesn’t fix anything, and tweaking the VA system won’t make things right.
The problem with the VA system is the system, a single-payer model. Newspaper headlines shrieked outrage over unconscionable wait times to see a doctor; inadequate operating rooms; and needed medicines not available. This should come as no surprise. That is the way single-payer systems work. That is the norm, not the exception.
Look to our north for proof, to the single payer system in Canada. Fifteen years ago, a Canadian surgeon named Dr. Ciaran McNamee sued the Alberta Provincial government claiming that patients were dying needlessly, while waiting for authorized (but not funded) care. He had good hard medical data to...(Read Full Article)